(Press-News.org) Opioids – strong morphine-based painkillers – are widely prescribed to patients experiencing chronic severe pain. While these drugs are very effective for treating and managing pain, they have one particularly bothersome side effect: constipation. A new drug, called naloxegol, could bring relief. In stage 3 trials reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, KU Leuven and international researchers provide new evidence that the drug relieves constipation without dulling opioids' pain-relieving effects.
Up until a decade ago, physicians rarely prescribed opioids, reserving them primarily for the terminally sick. Today, opioid-based drugs have proliferated thanks to their 'user-friendliness' and effectiveness. Millions of patients take opioids on a daily basis to manage lower back pain and chronic joint problems. Opioids also play a critical role in pain management regimes for cancer patients.
However, opioids have a number of side effects, including nausea, vomiting and – notoriously – constipation. Opioids block pain by binding to 'mu-receptors' in the brain. But they also bind to mu-receptors in the bowels, and this causes constipation.
Some sixty percent of patients that take opioid pain relievers experience constipation. For some, the bother is so great that they choose to stop taking the drug.
A newly developed opioid antagonist called naloxegol may offer relief. Stage 3 testing by an international team of researchers led by Belgian gastroenterologist Jan Tack (University Hospitals Leuven) confirms the drug's efficacy.
Naloxegol is based on the same active molecule as naloxone, a drug developed in the 1960s to counter the effects of opioid overdose. Naloxone is commonly used to wake patients from opioid-induced anesthesia after surgery.
To arrive at naloxegol, the researchers modified the molecular structure of naloxone. The result is an orally administered, once-a-day pill for patients experiencing opioid-induced constipation.
The researchers tested the pill's efficacy in two phase 3 studies – with promising results. Naloxegol was shown to maintain opioids' pain-killing effect in the brain and block their effects in the bowels. Bowel function in all of the 1,400 test subjects returned to normal and accompanying stomach pain and other discomforts decreased. No patients experienced a diminished pain-relieving effect as a result of the drug.
While the studies addressed in the paper focused on patients taking opioids for non-cancer pain such as back pain and other musculoskeletal ailments, similar studies are now underway to examine the effect of naloxegol in patients with chronic cancer-related pain.
Final regulatory approval for the drug is pending in the United States and Europe.
INFORMATION:
Promising medication counteracts constipation caused by opioid painkillers
Once-a-day pill could flush out bothersome side effect for many patients taking opioids like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet
2014-07-16
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Bubble wrap serves as sheet of tiny test tubes in resource-limited regions
2014-07-16
Popping the blisters on the bubble wrap might be the most enjoyable thing about moving. But now, scientists propose a more productive way to reuse the popular packing material — as a sheet of small, test tube-like containers for medical and environmental samples. Their report, which shows that analyses can take place right in the bubbles, appears in the ACS journal Analytical Chemistry.
George Whitesides and colleagues explain that although bubble wrap filled with biological samples, like blood or urine, or chemicals would have to be handled carefully, the material offers ...
NIH turns to crowdsourcing to repurpose drugs
2014-07-16
New Rochelle, NY, July 16, 2014–Experimental drugs proven safe but perhaps not sufficiently effective in initial testing or against a first disease target may sit gathering dust on the shelves of pharmaceutical companies. An NIH-sponsored effort based on a crowdsourcing strategy to establish collaborations between industrial and academic partners to test and develop these therapeutic compounds was met with an overwhelming response and has led to clinical testing of a broad range of pilot projects and a newly announced round of funding opportunities. These findings are described ...
What do Google searches tell us about our climate change fears?
2014-07-16
Republicans search the Net for information about the weather, climate change and global warming during extremely hot or cold spells. Democrats Google these terms when they experience changes in the average temperatures. These are some of the surprising findings from a study by Corey Lang of the University of Rhode Island in the US, published in Springer's journal Climatic Change. He tracked how the temperature fluctuations and rainfall that Americans experience daily in their own cities make them scour the Internet in search of information about climate change and global ...
An anti-glare, anti-reflective display for mobile devices?
2014-07-16
If you've ever tried to watch a video on a tablet on a sunny day, you know you have to tilt it at just the right angle to get rid of glare or invest in a special filter. But now scientists are reporting in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces that they've developed a novel glass surface that reduces both glare and reflection, which continue to plague even the best mobile displays today.
Valerio Pruneri and colleagues note that much effort has been poured into anti-reflective and anti-glare technology. In the highly competitive digital age, any bonus feature ...
Fundamental research is paving the way for development of first vaccine for heart disease
2014-07-16
DETROIT — Researchers at Wayne State University have made a fundamental discovery and, in subsequent collaboration with scientists at La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI), are one step closer to the goal of developing the world's first T-cell peptide-based vaccine for heart disease — the number one killer in the nation.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the arterial walls, which thicken due to accumulation of fatty materials such as cholesterols and triglycerides. Blocking of arteries supplying blood to the heart is the underlying cause ...
Decoding dengue
2014-07-16
Scientists have discovered a new pathway the dengue virus takes to suppress the human immune system. This new knowledge deepens our understanding of the virus and could contribute to the development of more effective therapeutics.
For years, the conventional approach to target the dengue virus was through vector control, which was regarded to be the most effective method. This is because the mechanics of the virus have been elusive, which in turn hampered the development of effective treatments and vaccines.
Fortunately a new study, published in the prestigious journal ...
Aqueous two-phase systems enable multiplexing of homogeneous immunoassays
2014-07-16
A new protein biomarker test platform developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and Indiana University promises to improve diagnostic testing. The test can accurately and simultaneously measure multiple proteins that indicate the presence of diseases like graft-versus-host disease (bone marrow transplant rejection) in only two hours, no washing steps, and using only a minute volume of blood plasma. A report on this new technology can be found online in the journal TECHNOLOGY.
The protein test uses a micropatterning method developed in Shuichi Takayama's Micro/Nano/Molecular ...
Tracking the breakup of Arctic summer sea ice
2014-07-16
As sea ice begins to melt back toward its late September minimum, it is being watched as never before. Scientists have put sensors on and under ice in the Beaufort Sea for an unprecedented campaign to monitor the summer melt.
The international effort hopes to figure out the physics of the ice edge in order to better understand and predict open water in Arctic seas.
"This has never been done at this level, over such a large area and for such a long period of time," said principal investigator Craig Lee, an oceanographer at the University of Washington's Applied Physics ...
Breast cancer: DMP is largely consistent with guidelines
2014-07-16
On 16 July 2014 the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) published the results of a literature search for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines on the treatment of people with breast cancer. The aim of the report is to identify those recommendations from current guidelines of high methodological quality that may be relevant for the planned revision of the disease management programme (DMP). According to the results of the report, there is no compelling need for revision of any part of the DMP. However, IQWiG identified some aspects that ...
Self-assembling nanoparticle could improve MRI scanning for cancer diagnosis
2014-07-16
Scientists have designed a new self-assembling nanoparticle that targets tumours, to help doctors diagnose cancer earlier.
The new nanoparticle, developed by researchers at Imperial College London, boosts the effectiveness of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning by specifically seeking out receptors that are found in cancerous cells.
The nanoparticle is coated with a special protein, which looks for specific signals given off by tumours, and when it finds a tumour it begins to interact with the cancerous cells. This interaction strips off the protein coating, ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Brain stimulation improves vision recovery after stroke
Species in crisis: critically endangered penguins are directly competing with fishing boats
Researchers link extreme heat and work disability among older, marginalized workers
Physician responses to patient expectations affect their income
Fertility preservation for patients with cancer
We should talk more at school: Researchers call for more conversation-rich learning as AI spreads
LHAASO uncovers mystery of cosmic ray "knee" formation
The simulated Milky Way: 100 billion stars using 7 million CPU cores
Brain waves’ analog organization of cortex enables cognition and consciousness, MIT professor proposes at SfN
Low-glutamate diet linked to brain changes and migraine relief in veterans with Gulf War Illness
AMP 2025 press materials available
New genetic test targets elusive cause of rare movement disorder
A fast and high-precision satellite-ground synchronization technology in satellite beam hopping communication
What can polymers teach us about curing Alzheimer's disease?
Lead-free alternative discovered for essential electronics component
BioCompNet: a deep learning workflow enabling automated body composition analysis toward precision management of cardiometabolic disorders
Skin cancer cluster found in 15 Pennsylvania counties with or near farmland
For platforms using gig workers, bonuses can be a double-edged sword
Chang'e-6 samples reveal first evidence of impact-formed hematite and maghemite on the Moon
New study reveals key role of inflammasome in male-biased periodontitis
MD Anderson publicly launches $2.5 billion philanthropic campaign, Only Possible Here, The Campaign to End Cancer
Donors enable record pool of TPDA Awards to Neuroscience 2025
Society for Neuroscience announces Gold Sponsors of Neuroscience 2025
The world’s oldest RNA extracted from woolly mammoth
Research alert: When life imitates art: Google searches for anxiety drug spike during run of The White Lotus TV show
Reading a quantum clock costs more energy than running it, study finds
Early MMR vaccine adoption during the 2025 Texas measles outbreak
Traces of bacteria inside brain tumors may affect tumor behavior
Hypertension affects the brain much earlier than expected
Nonlinear association between systemic immune-inflammation index and in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and atrial fibrillation: a cross-sectio
[Press-News.org] Promising medication counteracts constipation caused by opioid painkillersOnce-a-day pill could flush out bothersome side effect for many patients taking opioids like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet